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Mwana Ministries Update

Answering God’s calling with conviction can transform lives in ways you cannot even begin to imagine at the time.

TCF’s Janey Menzies left home in Scotland in 2003 to join Dynamis World Ministries in Zimbabwe to eventually run children’s crusades across southern Africa.

She learnt to use puppets in these crusades as a powerful way to captivate the imagination of young children and spread God’s word.

The crusades in Africa attracted as many as two to three thousand children at a time but for Janey that was not enough!

She became more and more frustrated that there were still so many more lost souls in Africa who had never heard of Jesus and so after seven years of service she left the ministry.

I am the vine; you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;

Apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

This month, Janey and her husband Evans, have been in Scotland addressing audiences about how their lives have been truly blessed and how a vision shared has become a reality.

In 2012, Mwana Ministries was registered as a Scottish charity with the help of Tayside Christian Fellowship’s elders and the amazing support of friends, who are now trustees.

“As we look back over the last seven years, we can truly see God’s faithfulness” says Janey.

Tommy Time, devised by both Janey and Evans in their spare time two years previously, is now a 13-episode TV puppet show broadcast weekly to tens of thousands of children across Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

The fourth series has just been completed and Tommy Time has recently been acknowledged by the Government.

To have reached this point is a remarkable achievement as both Janey and Evans started off as broadcast novices. They both had to learn about video and film production, source broadcast equipment, set up their own studios, create their own scenery and puppets, devise their own scripts and finally, produce programmes fit for broadcast on secular channels.

“Jesus used storytelling to teach people about the Kingdom of God,” explains Janey “and so do we. Our puppets help fire the imagination of children and bring the stories to life and we continually seek the Holy Spirit’s help to enable us to draw more children to Jesus.”

As well as the TV programmes, Janey and Evans run a local outreach programme called Mwana Mission which reaches a thousand, mostly disadvantaged, children a week.